Catalino "Tite" Curet Alonso: Part two: Richie Viera remembers Tite

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2003 by Carmen Rosado

In Part One of this article (October, 2003), we had a conversation with Noel Cruz, a journalist who has dedicated his career to documenting in film the music and culture of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other Caribbean and Latin American nations. He spoke of Tite Curet Alonso--Puerto Rico's most prolific contemporary composer--after his passing on August 5, 2003.

This time around our conversation is with Richie Viera, a music historic and collector who knew Tite Curet Alonso from Early childhood, and is Part owner (with his Father Don Rafael Viera) of Viera's Records, "The House of the Collector." Viera has over 40,000 records in his collection. Tite was weekly visitor to Viera's Records and Wrote many of his compositions and articles for his weekly newspaper column in the back office.

CARMEN ROSADO: How did you meet Tite?

RICHIE VIERA: I was seven years old when my father Rafael Viera worked at a distributing company called Allied Wholesale. They were distributors of the entire Fania catalogue. In Puerto Rico it was known as the Fania offices. I met Tite there because he was working at that time as a composer and producer. Before that he had worked as a promoter.

CR: How did he influence your life?

RV: I could be in a classroom, at a party, reading the newspaper, watching local television, any event or situation, and my mind would recall one of his songs describing the same situation. He was always there mentally photographing everyday life and describing an event in song. During my adolescence I began to produce albums for my father's company and had the privilege of working with Tite. I would ask him to compose a song based on something that I had seen happen. He would compose the song and I would accompany him to the studio to record. He was a master, and I respected all of his suggestions. We shared many wonderful experiences together.

CR: Cheo Feliciano described him as a master tailor of music composition. How has your experience with Tite helped you in your professional career?

RV: Cheo is right. Tite could compose for anyone from any nationality, with any personality, big or small orchestra, conjunto, ballad, merengue, or rock'n'roll. He never denied a song to anyone. I became a music historian and have been working in my profession for 22 years. It was my privilege to study Tite Curet Alonso because he is the center of Latin music, not only in Puerto Rico, but in other countries as well. I made it my obligation to study him because I lived so much history with him. When you study and share experiences with a master an entire life, it's easier to understand his work. I had a pulse on his feelings, his thoughts, what made him happy of angry. Tite worked as a postmaster for the U.S. Postal Service. He was so humble that he considered himself a mailman, even though he never went out to distribute mail. His daily responsibilities were of the administrative sort. He encouraged, coaxed and guided many. It was like watching a basketball player playing the game, being the coach as well as sitting in the bleachers all at the same time. He gave lots of advice to people like Jerry Masucci, whom I consider the architect of salsa. He did things for people in the music industry that went beyond friendship and brotherhood; he was a father figure for many.

CR: How frequently did Tite come into the store?

RV: Often, sometimes every day, and every time he carne in, he brought a bag full of plantain fritters stuffed with meat of crab (alcapurrias), other times he brought cod fish fritters (bacalaitos), but he always brought enough for everybody. He would come to the back office, sit at the desk and start typing his newspaper column for the Primera Hora newspaper and for VEA. I watched him compose songs many times at this desk. From a line in a song that he was composing another song would emerge. He would throw his head back and begin to sway like Steve Wonder, and compose another song; it was like watching multiple births! All accomplished on an old typewriter, with his pencil corrections on the paper. Then he would take breaks and go to the front of the store, where my father placed a resting chair for him to con verse with everybody that carne into the store.

CR: Can you name some of the compositions that you asked him to create?

RV: Towards the end of the '70s and early "80s, I was producing an album with Viti Ruiz, Frankie Ruiz's brother. I described the situation that both brothers were going through. Tite composed Entre Familia, from the LP Sedúceme (Combo Records, 2058). Before he died, he composed a song that I had requested about a wealthy young man who wanted to play ball in the street with the others, and wanted to participate in activities with them, but his father would not allow it because he belonged to a privileged class. He described in the song how this guy who had everything was unhappy because what he really wanted was love and friendship: El Hijo del Ricachón. From that inspiration he wrote La Calle. It was amazing to watch him compose! Not only did he compose, he had in his mind the entire musical arrangement, and with a tape recorder he'll do the horn section, tell you how the rhythm section sounded. In other words, when he finished a composition, the arrangement was done as well. Tite would give it to the arranger, discuss it with him, go into the recording session and direct the entire recording. As usual, the song was a bit; ah amazing process, but deceptively simple. We all loved working with him.